Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-12-27
CONNECTICUT C00NS.
FAMOUS COON DOGS OF The
NOTED DEVILS HOP YARD"

When the Season Sets in-What the Coon |
Fattens On and How He Is Brought |
Down Out of the Tree-coon suppers. |
Fighting the Dogs.
The coon season sets in in Connecticut
about the middle of September and continues
until cold weather. but the farmers do not
make a business of the sport until after
the corn has been husked and other
autumn chores have been done The coon is
ripest and juiciest in the period between Oct
ID and Nov. 15, and, being stuffed full of
Indian corn, fall poultry, chestnuts and
acorns, he is less nimble; he cannot run so
far after the dogs once get on his trail. His
wits are not so sharp either, and usually as
soon as the first hue and cry of a lot of stall
wart country lads, with couple of excited
dogs, is borne to him on the still, crisp au-
tumn air, he waddles away into the heart of
the most convenient swamp, pulls his corpu-
lent body to the top of an evergreen or black
oak tree and waits for the chase If the night
is starlit it is an easy thing to do to pick him
off his lofty perch with charge Of No. .
shot driven with three-and-a-half drachms
of powder behind his foreshoulder. A fat
coon that has been shot in this way usually
sits still and thinks a moment, until he has
fully made up his mind that his burden is
more than he can bear, then he topples con-
tentedIy over and comes tumbling down
among the tree limbs with the punky thud of
a decayed pumpkin rolling out of a cart. He
strikes the ground, large round ball of fur,
arA inc lXr ffur fi,raaI y.-ith char
hooks shoot out just in time to catch two
dogs that have been excitedly waiting for
| this act in the entertainment The coon has
| now become buzz saw, and each time that
he revolves a dog loses several pieces of his
| hide or bit of his ear or lip Over and over
| the three animals spin, dogs snarling and
| swapping coon biting and striking and splut-
| tering, and the revolutions do not cease until
! the motive power gives out and the coon is d
| limp bag of fat in the jaws of his fierce foes
After the game has been killed one of The
hunters throws it over his shoulders and ths
dogs are driven off into the woods to look VI
"A new trail
THE BEST coon REGION.
The best coon country in Connecticut is th
rocky, wooded, picturesque region betweel
the Connecticut and Thames rivers 1t is tn
kind of land that coon revels and grow
fat in There are rich meadows and arabl
hillsides, where farmers can raise fine cor
for coons; there are almost impenetrabl
swamps to which coons can retire in times c
stress; there are deep, gloomy valleys, walle
in by frowning, chaotic masses of rocks, tina
are pierced by winding chambers and cav
ties, and there are long forests of big tree
with hole in every fifth tree, into which
coon can slip in the early morning after
night of it m the corn lot or at a farmer
poultry yard
About fourteen miles west of Norwich, an
six or seven from the Connecticut river, is
deep valley Of singular formation that is r
markable for wild and fantastic scenery.
is known in half the state as the Devils HI
Yard and it is the center of tract
country of legendary renown. Here COO
and witches have been hunted from an il
memorial time. AT the north roaring trol
stream leaps through a Jagged throat in Il
Y hills over powders and ledges, sixty feet
more, into the valley, which expands {
either hand until it is half a miie in width
1t its broadest part, and rushes through a ms
+ row gap between vertical precipices thr
$ miles below at the southern limit of the h
% yard. On each side the valley is hemmed
T. by perpendicular, almost seamless walls
~ block granite; the mountains are begirt by
wide wilderness, with here and there a fal
amid the woods, and, as far as the business
men is concerned, it is practically out Of I
4 world The Devils Hop Yard, so called
6 cause the devil used to HOP" in it with Hi
g dam witches before the world became I
3 dull and commonplace for romantic gent
N man in black with horns on his head TO ts
II any interest in it, is, together with the
ii vironing country, the paradise of coon hu
d ers and tine nursery of typical coon do
81 Nowhere else are the coon hunter and
q coon dog to be met with in their full and &C
e plete glory.
q 1t requires an extraordinary dog for hu
"a ing coons, for no other animal leaves so d
e cate and 1eeting a scent. 1t is up to all
IL tricks of the fox, too, in battling pursuit.
. there is any process for breeding a success
Z coon dog it is not known. A setter O
pointer may do artistic work in his own
that no other dog can rival, and foxho,
ny NAV be superb in his line, but all may
int practically worthless for coon hunting
ch good coon dog may have cross from
The other hunting dogs, and there may b
broad stripe of mongrel in his make up,
is no one can say just what it is that mf
Ill, him great in his profession. There
scores of coon dogs, but first rate on
rare, and his value priceless,
THE TYPICAL COON DOG.
sra A good coon dog is born, not made. Il
M the Scotchman, or Yankee, of the ca
species-ons trait he must possess above
"a others, he must be canny. The Devils
Yard raises the best coon dogs. There
''F probably dozen dogs, owned by farmer
its region about the yard, that canno
bought for $50, and for one or two of